PvP Arena Mechanics

This guide has been created by awesome21snake. If you have any feedback about the guide, catch him on our Discord!

This section was heavily inspired by the following source: NGABBS-pvpguide. I thank them for their hard work researching Nikke’s PvP Arena. This was by far the most informative PvP guide I had found. I would also like to thank the maid team of the Nikke Community Server for defining and simplifying this section, namely: Omegamk19, zixk98, Scy_v4x, and cleancascade. Additionally I would like to thank Keripo for his research in PvP.

The following points explain the basic ideas we should know about Nikke PvP.

A PvP round consists of two teams. One attacker (ATK) team and One defender (DEF) team. Whichever team has all of its Nikkes die first, loses. If both teams die at the same time, the DEF team wins. A PvP round lasts 5 minutes. If the round isn’t over even after 5 minutes, the DEF team is automatically given the victory of that round. Now that we know what a win and loss in PvP is, we can move on to the actual mechanics.

Info #1

Knowing the positions of both ATK and DEF teams is important in PvP. You’ll find in the photos shown below, positions labelled P1, P2, P3, P4, P5 for ATK (below) and DEF (above).

During the PvP round, the positioning for the attacking team will be the same, but for the defending team it will be flipped (as shown in the photo below).

Info #2

The following table shows the normal targeting for each weapon type:

This is very very important to remember while team building.

Info #3

RLs will cause AOE damage to the left and right sides of the target. If you attack P1, positions 1 and 2 will be damaged; if you attack P2, positions 1, 2 and 3 will be damaged, and so on. Hence you should keep the following image in mind while positioning your Nikkes:

Source for image - here.

Info #4

A Nikke will change targets if:

• She reloads
• Her weapon changes (Snow White, Maxwell, Laplace)

Or if the Nikke she's targeting:

• Hides behind cover,
• Dies,
• The target's Taunt ends.

Nikkes who are ‘in cover’ or dead get skipped when choosing new targets; ‘In cover’ includes reloading, getting stunned, and interval between every SR and RL shot. This will be discussed more in our Targeting Section.

Info #5

RL and SR units are sometimes not suitable in the P1 position. This is due to a phenomenon called ‘Target Skipping’. The normal attack intervals of RL and SR will make them ‘enter cover’, which will allow the focusing party to re-select the target and skip them in most cases. This is still a random event. The Nikke is either skipped or not, depending on what the game feels like choosing. This is discussed more in our Targeting Section.

Info #6

Based on the conclusion of the previous point, be careful when using RL Nikkes as P1 tankers, mainly: Noise and Noah. They have a high probability of allowing Target Skipping to happen, making AR/SG/SMG/MG Nikkes in P2/P3/P4 (and in some cases, even P5) extremely vulnerable to dying. This also gives the enemy RL increased burst gen due to them hitting 3 targets instead of the usual 2.

Info #7

Targeted skills can be taunted, such as Anis:Sparkling Summer's skill 2, Power’s or Pepper’s nuke "against the enemy with the highest ATK", Brid’s nuke "against the enemy with the highest DEF power”, etc. If these skills are taunted before being triggered, they will target the taunter.

Info #8

Currently, teams 2 and 3 in SP arena will have abnormal targeting RARELY. In this, the position of the last Nikke focus fired on the previous team gets targeted in the following round. This will be discussed further in the Targeting section under “Residual Targeting”, a term coined by us to explain this phenomenon.

Info #9

RL hitting P1 can cause AOE damage to 4 targets, which are P1+P2+P1 cover+P2 cover, so the burst gen of that particular RL is 4× her normal burst gen value, and the same applies to hitting P5; RL hitting P2 can cause AOE damage to 6 targets. Therefore, it is 6× the normal burst gen of the Nikke, and the same applies to hitting P3 and P4.

Info #10

Some Nikkes have skills that can give extra burst gen, such as Scarlet’s skill 2, Jackal’s skill 1, Harran’s skill 1, Modernia’s skill 1, etc. The burst gen value that is given from these skills each time these skills are triggered are the base burst gen value of these Nikkes: Scarlet: 0.45, Jackal: 3.55, Modernia: 0.05, Harran: 2.9, etc

Info #11

Nihilister, A2 and Pascal are special Nikkes in their weapon types. Nihilister has higher burst gen than other SRs due to her skills. Second shot onwards, Nihilister gets pierce, damages cover and Nikke and that counts as hitting 2 enemies, and then she deals extra damage to both cover and Nikke due to her skill 2, hitting 4 times every shot. A2 is a slower shooting RL than other RLs. However due to her base splash radius being higher than other RLs, she hits P1+P2+P3+cover of all 3, making her burst gen 6× the normal burst gen per shot. Pascal is an automatic RL. His base burst gen value is lower than other RLs but he shoots faster than them. Pascal shoots 6 bullets for every 3 bullets normal RLs shoot, however he is currently bugged and wastes one of his ammo for some odd reason by shooting it at the ground.

Info #12

Dual-wielders like Noah, Soline, Crow and Quency shoot only from one gun in PvP, and thus their burst gen is halved.

Info #13

RL and SR can enter cover between shots and can avoid incoming projectiles of opponent RLs. We call this phenomenon "Rocket whiffing" or "whiffing" or “i-framing”. If this event occurs, the fire focus party will lose tremendous amounts of burst gen, and this can be the deciding factor of a win or a loss in 95% of matchups.

Info #14

Since the burst gen of different Nikkes varies a lot, weapons that can generate a large amount of burst gen are often used as measurement units to calculate the burst gen of a particular team. These weapons are Rocket launchers and Clip shotguns. Without taking into account the charging terms, the approximate burst gen speed ranking is:

This will be discussed more in the Burst Energy Generation Guide.

Info #15

A high-speed team generally refers to a team that can reach full burst when the third shot of "1s charge time RL" is hit, abbreviated as:“3RL team”; a very high-speed team generally refers to a team that can be fully charged with 2 shots of "1s charge time RL". The teams that can reach full burst when the second shot hits opponents, are referred to as: “2 RL team”. Teams that can reach full burst when Clip SGs shoot 5 times are referred to as: “5SG or 2.5RL team”. The term 2.5RL is used since they burst between 2RL and 3RL teams, and so on.

Info #16

Teams that are slower than 4RL are not recommended for use, since they take too long to give any positive output. Instead of those teams, just use your highest CP Nikkes that are left by pressing ‘auto’.

Info #17

The hit-rate attribute is useless in PvP. Even shotguns, who have the worst hit-rate, will shoot and hit all 10 of their pellets, and not miss. Additionally, Nikkes have no core.

Info #18

Combat Power (CP) penalty exists in PvP, but within a certain range, the matchups are completely normal. When the combat power difference is greater than 15.4%, the low CP team will have a 20% attribute penalty, which will increase linearly thereafter. When the combat power difference is less than 15.4%, there is no penalty. Refer to the graph for accurate representation of the CP penalty.

Info #19

There is almost no skill delay in the arena, such as Privaty's stun, Scarlet’s AOE, Anne:Miracle Fairy's attack buff, etc., they all take effect immediately.

Info #20

Players should know a key difference between invincibility and Indomitability:

• Indomitability (Blanc or Makima): Will keep taking damage throughout the duration of Indomitability, which means jackal linked Nikkes still take damage, and opponents with “Restores x% of attack damage as HP” skills will still heal their HP.
• Invincibility (Noah or Biscuit+Defender): Will not take any damage during Invincibility duration, which means jackal linked Nikkes will not take damage, and opponents with “Restores x% of attack damage as HP” Skills will not be able to heal their HP.

Info #21

PvP battles happen at 30FPS, hence the fire rate for each gun type is as follows:

This is important for burst generation and feed charts.

I would like to thank the MVP: cleancascade, the amazing researcher: Keripo and Prydwen’s very own Coach and Twitch streamer: kisenix for their help in testing and also in defining this section.

As shown in point 2 of The Basics, the normal targeting is taken as follows:

• Attacking SMG, MG, SG, AR and RL will focus on P1.
• Attacking SR will focus p5.
• Defending SG will focus on P5.
• Defending SMG, MG, AR, RL and SR will focus on P1.

However there are multiple factors that can distract targeting. Normal factors include Taunting only. Abnormal factors include Target Skipping, Residual Targeting and Alice’s feelings.

Important Taunters (in order of importance - left being most important):

• B1: Noise, Ludmilla
• B2: Noah, Nero, Makima
• B3: -

Taunting is an effect placed on enemies or a debuff placed on your own Nikke where all or some of your opponents are forced to target/focus the Nikke causing the taunt. This is a highly valuable skill that can allow you to either: soak up damage so that your main DPS doesn’t get killed, or completely nullify any damage, usually done by pairing “Defender” taunter+Biscuit.

Taunters should ideally occupy P1 or P5, because you do not want to give extra burst gen to opponent RL. Of the important taunters listed, only Noise is not a defender. All the rest can possibly be used together with Biscuit to completely nullify opponents' damage (usually Alice, SG or 2B’s damage) in most cases, especially with Noah. Here are some short descriptions on when to use each taunter:

Noise acts as a Taunter+Healer. Mostly used to survive AoE damage of low buffed Scarlets or other weak AoEs. Can only taunt 2 enemies (or in rare cases, 3 enemies).

Noah acts as a Tanking Taunter+Shielder. Mostly used to negate AoE damage completely. Also commonly used to taunt all enemies to herself for 10 seconds. One of the 3 long duration taunters. Can be paired with Biscuit to tank even more damage, usually nullifying an enemy Alice completely.

Ludmilla acts as an off burst Tanking Taunter. You can burst with her if you like, however, you need to reach full burst to activate taunt. Usually used to allow Biscuit to burst, or to nullify enemy Alice or other single target damage dealers. One of the 3 long duration taunters. Can be paired with Biscuit to nullify 2B AoE. Cannot defend against other AoE. xRupee or Tia can be used as a Ludmilla replacement in P1 only, however they need to be paired with another B1.

Nero acts as a Tanking Taunter. Usually paired with Biscuit to nullify enemy Alice or other single target damage dealers. Can be paired with Biscuit to nullify 2B AoE. One of the 3 long duration taunters. Cannot defend against other AoE.

Makima is a Tanker with indomitability. Usually used in attacking. Mainly used in P5 while attacking to act as a tanker instead of a taunter to completely nullify Defending shotguns. Highly inefficient taunt. Rarely manages to block Enemy Alice or other single target damage dealers focusing on positions other than where Makima is placed at. Cannot defend against AoE.

Now we move on to Abnormal factors.

Target skipping was initially described in point 5, with the reason being point 4. But for clarity, I will be reiterating what it is. Whenever a Nikke getting focused enters cover, the fire focusing party will retarget towards a Nikke who is not in cover.

A Nikke may enter cover when: reloading, being stunned, or during RL and SR normal attack intervals, etc. Hence, if you are using Privaty+SGs in defence, a few times you will win against Makima keeping your shotguns stuck in P5 due to Privaty’s stun. You will still probably lose this matchup most of the time, because non-RL/SR weapon types rarely get target skipped.

Regardless, this has adverse effects, which may lead to your main DPS (e.g. Scarlet) being focused down and killed before bursting. It can also lead to your burst chain breaking. For example: if you had Noah in P1 followed by Pepper as the sole B1 unit in your team at P2. Noah can get target skipped and Pepper gets focused instead. If she dies you will fail to reach full burst and there's a high probability you will lose that matchup now. If the enemy team has RL, it gives them extra burst gen as those RL will hit 3 Nikkes instead of the usual 2.

As remarked before, RL and SR units are usually not suitable for P1 unless you have a foolproof plan setup to avoid your main damage dealer from dying. RL or SR have the same threat of target skipping when in p5, if they're up against Defending SG units, or attacking SR units.

Target skipping is still a random event. The Nikke is either skipped or not depending on what the game feels like choosing. More often than not, target skipping will occur against RL/SR.

Hence, when using RL units in P1, it is usually ideal to use preventive measures against this. Some of them are:

• Use of Jackal to allow main DPS to be more tankier,
• Revive the unit who may die with Rapunzel or Anne:Miracle Fairy,
• Use full RL/SR team so no one gets target skipped,
• Use an extra unit of the same burst type that cannot get skipped to allow for full burst (for example: Noah P1 + Viper P2; or Noise P1 + Pepper P2), so that Viper or Pepper die instead of Noah or Noise.

These are some general ideas to give you an example of what you can do in order to not fall prey to Target Skipping.

Residual Targeting, a rare event in which the entire targeting for one or more teams is shifted toward a certain position. To explain, Residual Targeting means targeting that is carried over from the previous round (hence, it exists in SPvP only). In this, the position on which the last nikke dies (or was the last Nikke to get hit with a bullet) in the preceding round will be first targeted in the subsequent round. For instance, if all of your Round 2 units died, but in the END, your P4 died, there's a high chance P4 of your next round team will be targeted next by the entire enemy squad.

The problem is: it is not possible for us to control its outcome. However, we can curb its effect to some extent by swapping the team orders (Round 3 becomes Round 1, and vice versa) of teams we know are possibly quick and efficient, or have an indomitable Nikke in an appropriate position to avoid exposing core units, or by introducing target skipping. There is no proof yet whether RLs/SRs can evade residual targeting through Target Skipping, but there's a high chance they do because of "going into cover".

Residual Targeting can happen to defenders and attackers both, confirmed through testing.

You can use this to your advantage when attacking, but the adoption is a bit clunky and hard to execute. Also, residual targeting is a rare occurrence, it is random just like target skipping. However, unlike target skipping more often than not, Residual Targeting will NOT occur.

If you plan to research targeting, we highly recommend you do not start with Alice. Alice has a mind of her own sometimes. Here’s just some of the stuff we have found over the months of what can or cannot happen with Alice:

• She will sometimes ignore Noah’s taunt on burst completely, and sometimes she will be taunted. However, if Noah or Noise hit Alice with their full charged shot, Alice WILL get taunted.
• If Alice is not taunted by ‘taunt on burst’, she will continue to attack the Nikke she was focusing on until either the target is dead, or if she was taunted by a ‘fully-charged shot taunt’ by a Nikke.
• This has only been observed for attacking Alice.
• She will get stuck on Makima sometimes and lose, but often she will ignore Makima after Makima’s short taunt duration ends and then kill the rest of your team in the blink of an eye.
• This has mainly been observed for defending Alice, where Makima may taunt Alice, but after 3 seconds when the taunt is over, Alice will stop focusing on Makima completely until the end.
• She has no set attacking pattern. After her target is killed, she will randomly aim for a Nikke to start shooting at, unlike other Nikkes such as shotguns who usually, for example, while defending: will focus on p5, then p4, then p3 and so on.
• There is an unusual bug in which the team “Noah - Rapunzel - Alice - Anis - Biscuit” does not burst in 3RL (like it should) even without visual rocket whiffing, unless we use 2 quantum cubes (which we used on Anis and one other RL unit).
• We suspect it is happening because Burst Gen Speed Value of teams calculated between 100 - 102 in our way of calculating burst gen happen to burst the next time a Nikke will provide burst gen to them. Hence, try to reach > 102 burst speed value for your teams.
• Sometimes, using ARs/SMGs in teams that are that are 100-102 can allow teams to burst normally due to them providing burst gen at a faster rate than RLs/SRs can allow teams to burst.

All in all, when going up against Alice, it's best to hope that Alice will follow normal targeting patterns. Alice’s main weakness still remains to be Biscuit+Defender class taunter (if the taunter successfully taunts Alice), but her importance in attack cannot be understated. She is definitely one of the strongest units in PvP, and hence worth studying.

• Cover Bug, exists in SP Arena:
• If the cover of a Nikke is completely destroyed in a Round, the following Round will also have the cover destroyed, hence reducing enemy RLs Burst Gen from 4× to 2×. [FIXED in September 1 Patch]
• Revive Bug, exists in SP and Rookie Arena:
• If a Nikke is revived, the OL stats are reapplied on the Nikke and hence, doubled. For example: If a Scarlet had 40 Ammo and she died. When she is revived, she will have 60 ammo. [FIXED]
• Alice ignoring ‘taunt on burst’ of Noah, exists in SP and Rookie Arena:
• Alice will straight up ignore Noah’s taunt and keep shooting where she was initially shooting unless the Nikke she was shooting at dies or she is taunted by another Nikke (for example, by Noise’s or Noah’s Taunt on Full Charge Shot). This Bug is extremely common but experience varies from account to account on whether it happens or not. [Not Fixed] Video: Kosmiu’s video.
• Opponent Defenders getting Immune from Player’s own Biscuit, exists in SP and Rookie Arena:
• Quite an insane bug, one must say. Let’s say you are facing an Opponent who has `Defender` type Nikkes like Jackal but no Biscuit. Meanwhile your team is a Biscuit+SAnis or Biscuit+Defender setup. Very very rarely, the opponent defenders will get Immunity/Invincibility from your OWN biscuit. [Not Fixed]

• Pascal hates the ground:
• Pascal straight up just shoots his first bullet at the ground, causing him to lose significant Burst Gen.

• Bizarre Target Skipping, exists in SP and Rookie Arena:
• There is also a recent find in which the Nikke in defending team’s P5 might skip P1 to attack P2 (or if it’s an SG unit: skips P5 to attack P4), regardless of P1 being RL or not. This is a very rare occurrence, the reason of which we have not found at all yet.
• This occurrence has happened in round 1 and rookie, hence it is not related to residual targeting.

I believe all the major mechanics have now been adequately described. This is everything we have found out about PvP till Tia’s banner, and I can only hope I did not miss any key points worth knowing. Do contact us in the Nikke Community Server or Prydwen’s very own Discord Server if you want to discuss PvP with us!

Next up should be the very important Burst Generation Guide, after which we will move on to what PvP team-building is all about.

PvP Burst Generation